Going Google (apps), Part 4: Contacts/Calendar

WOODY'S WINDOWS

Going Google (apps), Part 4: Contacts/Calendar

By Woody Leonhard

If you find Outlook's Contacts program ponderous and its Calendar overbearing and underpowered, consider switching to Google contacts and calendaring apps. Google's free tools are lighter and more flexible — and easily accessed via your phone or tablet.

Google Calendar is a fantastic solution that I've been using for around 7 years. I love the way I can overlay multiple calendars while controlling which of my calendars are shared with which people and how much detail is shared. For example, I always import the IRS calendar to stay informed of those deadlines. Google Contacts is good, but here is the main reason I'm posting this:

If you use an Android phone, you are REQUIRED to use a Google account to set it up. Be careful to select your primary account, and if you change your primary account, change it on your phone too [this unfortunately is likely to require resetting your phone]! I have received calls with frantic requests and unresolved data losses from multiple Google Apps users who went Google but left their Android phones set up with an old Google account. If you do that there is a chance your contacts will be lost. I suggest you confirm they are synchronizing in the old account and then export, then import them into your new Google Apps account. Do the same with your calendar(s). This way you will never lose your Contact or Calendar data.

PS: here's an update on this sub-topic; Starting with Android 4.0 by default you do not need a Google Account for setup!